Amid its war with Ukraine, Russia is seeking to strengthen its ties with the Asian country of North Korea.
Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin made this known via a statement signed and released by him on Sunday in Moscow.
In a letter sent to his counterpart Kim Jong-un on Pyongyang’s liberation day, Mr. Putin said the move would be in both countries interests.
In his reaction, North Korean President, Kim said their relationship dates back to pre-World War years with victory over Japan.
He added that their “comradely friendship” would grow stronger.
North Korean Television, KCNA, reports that the expanded bilateral relations would “conform with the interests of the two countries”.
It added that “strategic and tactical cooperation, support and solidarity” between the two countries “had been put on a new high stage, in the common front for frustrating the hostile forces’ military threat and provocation”.
Pyongyang did not identify the hostile forces by name, but the term has been used repeatedly by North Korea to refer to the US and its allies.
The Soviet Union was once a major ally of North Korea, offering economic cooperation, cultural exchanges, and aid.
Meanwhile, the relationship between these two nations went sour the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) disintegrated into smaller units in 1989
In July, North Korea was one of the few countries to officially recognize two Russian-backed separatist states in eastern Ukraine, after Russia signed a decree declaring them an independent.
Meanwhile both leaders Kim Jong Un and Vladimir Putin met on Thursday at a summit designed to show that Washington is not the only power able to set the agenda on Pyongyang’s nuclear program.
Putin and Kim, in their first ever face-to-face encounter, shook hands outside the summit venue, a university campus, then sat down in a conference room to exchange greetings in front of the television cameras
However, Ukraine which is at war with Russia, in his retaliation, has cut off all diplomatic ties with Pyongyang in North Korea.